Who knew this little bird could have so much power?
It seems like everywhere I go, the word “Twitter” or “tweet” appears. As I sit down to read this month’s issue of Elle magazine, one of the featured articles is about Twitter. Even last week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy featured Dr. Bailey tweeting about her surgeries for the world to “scrub in on” with minute by minute updates. At first, I wasn’t a huge fan, but now the little bird is growing on me. I have become addicted to reading tweets from friends, companies, and celebrities I follow as well as creating them myself.
Here is the video clip from Grey’s Anatomy:
Twitter has over 200 million users and there are approximately 140 million tweets sent daily. In 2010, 100 million new accounts were registered and there were over 25 billion tweets sent in total. Just last year, in January 2010, there were only 50 million tweets sent daily. The number of daily tweets is constantly growing. This pattern can be seen from the graph below that was created by Twitter last year.
With the recent trend of increasing Twitter users, copmanies are now using Twitter to advertise their products and services. Twitter is an excellent way for a company to advertise their name and products. It is simple to use and doesn’t take much time to tweet 140 characters about upcoming promotions, new products, or product reviews. Plus, it is free to use. #success. Also, Twitter users are able to mention companies and provide feedback to them through the use of the hash tag (#) and the @ symbol. In a blog post by Willis Wee, he mentions that 80% of Twitter users use it for business purposes and 20% of tweets contain brand names. He then provides 7 ways a company can increase their followers on Twitter.
1. Your tweets- choose words carefully.
2. Your background- a good background is equivalent to a good impression.
3. Your avatar-have the same avatar across all company profiles to make it easily identifiable.
4. Don’t use auto tweet-show that your company cares.
5. Be personal- communication is key: don’t tweet in a robotic manner or in a corporate top down tone.
6. Say thank you- being polite will bring you far in life and thanking can spark conversation.
7. Overall image- Twitter requires customization, so make it suitable for your company.
From my experience with Twitter, I think these are excellent tips to help increase followers to a certain page. If a company is able to use the right combination of these tips, they will be able to promote brand image and increase awareness. This might even persuade more users to move towards their products or services. Further, these tips can also be used to increase followers on one’s personal page.
Sources: How Twitter Users Changed in 2010